pluviam Prov. Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether it raine or not all are not content T is even a taske of divinitie to please man not that this argues any weaknesse in Gods power who can doe all things but a wickednesse in mans nature that will be pleased with nothing Not only the harder portion of afflicton but even the best of his favours we entertaine with some dislike and Criticise with a froward curiositie upon the choycest of his favours Nay if God should give us all things in the world and not content over and beside all all would be as nothing but so farre from satiating the unlimited desire of mans appetite or setling his thoughts in a quiet comp sednesse that they would prove but a varietie of vexation to him he would be pinched in that plentie and starv'd in that varietie yea when God had done all to please him he should heare the voyce of his discontent screaking in that harsh and unpleasing note O ne sic quae so Domine mi O not so my Lord c. It is an opinion of the Pythagoreans Platonists Aristo de Caelo lib. 2. cap. 9 that the heavens by the revolutions of their orbs produce a most melodious and divine harmonie and that as they are the measures of naturall time so they keep an harmonious time He pawne no faith upon it that those Orbs are the great Organ to that higher quire of Archangels Angels and glorified Saints that sing Hallelujahs to him that sitteth on the throne for ever and ever Rev. 4.13 But sure I am there is not more of various harmony there then there is hereof unpleasing discord so that were it possible with Scipio in his dreame Cic. Somnium Scipionis from heaven to behold the earth at that distance like a Mole-hill and men like little Ants busie in the eager prosecution of their unquiet desires so to heare all the ejaculations and prayers of mortalls we should not see so much varietie of tumultuous motion as we should heare of distast and passion What murmurs complaints repinings what clamorous frowardnesse harshnesse whining tuchinesse should we heer How many notes of discontent and passion harshly grate upon our eares and a world full of ne sic quaeso's not soes not so my Lord all unquiet and in all and every condition and estate a generall distast and frowardnesse one praying for that which another prayes against one desiring that which another execrates and every one envying the condition of other weary and complaining of their own and both and all in their disagreeing wishes agreeing in this harsh and unpleasing note O ne sic quaeso Domine mi O not so my Lord. You will not wonder at the poore Gally-slave who is forced under the rigid exaction of a cruell master at each tug to wrack nature to the height of her endevour and with his painting sighes and drops of sweat to wrestle with nay overcome the opposition of windes and waves if you heare from this miserable wretch vented amongst his sighes Ne sic quaeso Domine mi O not so my Lord. You will not wonder that the poore labourer that carries the price of his bread upon his forehead and is forced to make the wheele turne with no other Oyle then his own sweat if you heare the same from him Nor will you wonder at the poore wretch that lyes gasping in the Suburbs of death whose gasping 't is hard to say whether it be to take in or let goe the poore remainder of his breath you will not wonder if he cast downe upon the hard bed of affliction in a discontented frowardnesse rebound againe like a stone toward the hand that cast him with his Ne sic quaeso Domine mi O not so my Lord. But will you wonder to heare the rich man upon whom the world flowes like the setting of the Hellespont one way without a returne a Moitie of whose fortunes are both the wish and envy of thousands whose labour is but recreation and the study of others but to please him whom faire pleasure in the varietie of all her dresses courteth Will you wonder that such an one in his choice of worldly pleasures should have his ne sic quaeso that such a one could have any the least distast But so it is Nor need we indeed to wonder What can all these outward things comfort a man in a languishing disease This displicentia sui is a sicknesse of our nature Since Adam first eate that forbidden Apple our Teeth are set on edge Ezek. 11. 2 so that we disrellish even Angels food Manna Numb 21.5 The malignitie of our wit can finde a fault where God never made any and this dislike of all Gods actions and censure of the whole course of his providence is an Epidemicall and generall disease of man For indeed who is there amongst all the sonnes of Adam that can justly say his obedience moveth in a direct subordination to that first mover of all things that with a ready will he acteth the precepts commanded that with an humble patience abideth the punishments inflicted No no since that fall of our first parents the best of our obedience halteth and our patience is frowardnesse If God impose any taske to be performed inflict any punishment to be indured which is distastfull to the palate of our sickned nature O t is impossible to doe the one intollerable to suffer the other with what frowardnesse we goe about the one and undergoe the other and yet how little reason we have so to doe let us see in Lot Why should we deny obedience to Gods commands or interpose our not so when God commands alwayes for our owne good First then goe to the mountaine and be safe thy disobedience is a negative to thine owne safety Secondly he is thy Lord how ill coupled are these two ne sic with Domine mi not so with my Lord Thirdly thou art his Servant and is ne sis a fit dialect for a servus tuus Fourthly thou hast found grace in his sight and where is thy thankfulnesse for his favours past Fifthly he hath saved thy life where is thy confidence then for the time to come if thou obeyest him he will save it still all these might have beene motives to Lot's obedience and checkes to his ne sic to his not so yet all are nothing the authoritie of a Lord the dutie of a Servant the mercy of a deliverer the thankfulnesse for this grace obtained in saving his life He is thy Lord by authoritie he may command thou his Servant 't is thy dutie to obey and thou mayest be compelled to it but thou art a favourite to him it will be the part of thy thankefulnesse nay such a favourite as owest thy life and therefore shouldest venture it in his service Lot offended therefore against his owne safety against the authoritie of his Lord against the
singular pietie shall finde a singular preservation and when wrath and judgement like an universall deluge shall sweepe away a nation nay a world of wicked men God shall build the righteous an Arke of safety and he that like the Widowed Turtle singly mourned when all else generally rejoyced in the pleasures of sin shall when all howle in the bitternesse of torment singly rejoyce for his owne particular deliverance A voyce was heard as Tacitus tels us Audita major humanae vox Tacit. hist lib. 5. excedere Deos. Here was more then a voyce the presence of Angels more then their presence a zealous fervour and earnestnesse more then an earnestnesse a sacred violence to save Lot While he lingred saith vers 16. the men laid hold upon his hand and upon the hand of his wife and upon the hand of his two daughters the Lord being mercifull unto him and they brought him forth and set him without the Citie Vers 17. And it came to passe when they had brought him forth abroad that he said Escape for thy life look not behinde thee neither stay thou in all the plaine escape to the mountaine least thou be consumed Where come in the words of my text And Lot said unto them ô not so my Lord Behold now thy servant hath found grace in thy sigh c. The words then you see are a prayer in which observe the two naturall parts of every prayer thankesgiving and petition 1. Thankesgiving in these words Behold now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight and thou hast magnified thy mercie which thou hast shewed unto me in saving of my life The Petition in the rest of the words In the thankesgiving observe First the order of it Secondly the matter of it First the order that he makes the former sence of Gods antecedent favour the first and best argument to obtain a subsequent request Be pleased to learne an holy policie That gratitude is the best prologue to a request and a thankfull acknowledgement of a favour received the best way to obtaine another desired We send forth our prayers oftentimes as Noab bis Dove and both returne emptie Gen. 8.9 the Dove because all the earth was covered with water and our prayers because all former favours are drowned in our forgetfulnesse and ingratitude We are so transported with the immoderate desire of the things we want that usually we forget what we have Odiosum sanè hominum genus officia exprobrantium Citero qua saith Cicero commemorare debet is in quem collata sunt non commemorare qui contulit The remembrance of curtesies done sounds odiously in the mouth of the giver but gracefully becomes the mouth of the receiver and to a free ingenuous nature shall not onely not be a check that it shall prove a spur to a second bounty I might here then in the authoritie of Lot's example be bold to reprove the customary formes of many mens prayers in which petition ingrosses the whole length of their prayers and strength of their devotion while they either as no part exclude thankesgiving or as to a lesse necessary part give it the last and least place even the expiration of their zeale and prayer Yet thus it is that like the daughters of the horse-leech Prov. 30.50 we are still crying give give or like the Gudgeons ever gaping to be fed but our food obtain'd stops our mouthes not a word heard in way of thankfulnesse As if the things which were worth so much importunitie when requested were not worth acknowledgement when obtained But from the order of his thank I come to the matter of it in which observe these 4 parts 1. A gift bestowed life 2. The subject or object on whom righteous Lot 3. The impulsive or moving cause grace and mercie 4. The quantitie or extent of that mercie great in this word magnified A temporall blessing life bestowed on a righteous man yet Gods great grace and mercie acknowledged to be the onely cause yeilds us this conclusion That even temporary blessings bestowed on the best of men are of Gods free grace and great mercie and not at all of mans merit Or briefly The best of men cannot merit the worst of blessings I might easily prove it and as easily disprove the saucie boldnesse of those Romish dreamers who besides the Ladder of Iacob Gen. 28.12 Christ Iesus whose humanitie stood on earth and his divinitie reached unto heaven have found another ladder even of their owne merits a ladder that hath not onely perfection of parts but of degrees too degrees by which they can climbe heaven Such a one that good Patriarch never saw never dream'd of neper somnium quidem Nor we need we indeed a better argument against them then their owne arrogance which doth alwayes beare witnesse against it self and proves those things wanting which it brags to be owner of Luk. 18.11 Let these Pharisees then vaunt themselves to be higher and neerer heaven then other men but it may well be thought that rather the lightnesse of their opinion then reall and solide truth lifts them up to this height that they think themselves highest neerest heaven Psal 138.6 yet God that is in heaven beholdeth them a farre off Let us rather imitate the humilitie of the truly good man whose prayers are so farre from that odious theam of assuming merit that none so much none so frequent in imploring mercy But this point being Polemicall let me leave it to the Lords worthies and hast to the second part of my text Lots petition which is 1. First Negative ô not so my Lord. 2. Secondly Affirmative ô let me escape thither that is to Zoar either part backed with a seeming shew and strength of reason First of the Negative And the reason of that is à difficultate conditionis praescriptae the difficultie of the task imposed I cannot proved by a prosillogisme Ne fortè aliquod malum capiat moriar least some evill take me and I dye Evill behinde me before me with me behinde me from Sodom before me in the disconsolate solitarinesse of an unfrequented mountain in solitariness no company or company worse then beasts or men least I be devoured by wilde beasts or rob'd by theeves who are wilde men or if I be secure from the danger of fire behinde me of the mountaine before me yet I cannot for the evill with me the length of the way therefore I cannot escape to the mountaine ne fortè aliquod malum capiat moriar least some evill take me and I dye Next followes the Affirmative request where observe 1. First the order of it 2. Secondly the matter of it 1. The order that it comes in under the Lee and shelter of his arguments and is set downe in a close and Cryphick method as though indeed it came in by a strong and undoubted consequence and rather by way of a necessary conclusion then an humble petition Behold
her very necessities from pleasant societie to a melancholike solitarinesse where life is a tediousnesse and nothing else but a perpetuated act of a living death And therefore Lord if as thou pretendest thou dost truely purpose and wilt magnifie that mercie which thou hast shewed to me hitherto Then O not so my Lord for I cannot escape to the mountaine least some evill take me and I dye Thus hath Lot found Gods Counsell guiltie of hazzard and inconvenience by a jury of arguments and produced many reasons to prove it as full of hazzard as he of jealoufies and yet all indeed but the surmises of his feare and pretences of an unwilling minde So doth mans nature ever cavill against Gods commands they are like this journey to Lot up hill hard and dangerous the precepts he imposeth are impossible to be done Hujus legibus omnia delicta capite plectebantur ob quam causam Demades dicere solebat Draconem non atramento sed sanguine leges Scripsisse Vid. A. Gellium lib. 11. cap 18. the crosses he inflicteth impossible to be suffered his Commandements are like the Lawes of Draco written in bloud such as are to deny our selves goe out from the world plucke out our right eye cut of our right hand and cast them from us turne our left cheeke to him that smites on the right love our enemies crucifie our affections starve our appetites in a voluntary abstemiousnesse Paradoxes saith nature full of contrarietie to the principles that were borne with us Mar. 8.34 full of harshnesse to our appetites Rom. 12.1 absurditie to our reason Matth. 5.29.30.39.44 impossible to our strength Hard sayings who can heare them who câ—n beare them Gal. 5.44 And yet saith our Saviour Ioh 6 60. Mat. 11.30 Marth 11.30 My yoake is easie and my burden is light Psal 119.24.35.47 77.174 and David thy Testimonies are my delight and the Apostles after their stripes went away Act. 5.41 rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ How then the difficultie lyes in the perversenesse of mans will not in the bardnesse of Gods command As therefore the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4 3. if our Gospel be beds 't is hid to them that perish so say I if Gods commands be absurd 't is so to them onely who have not their senses exercised to discerne good and evill Heb. 5.14 and if it be harsh it is to them onely that savour not the things of God Matth. 16.23 if it be impossible Ier. 17.5 t is onely to him that trusteth in the arme of flesh and maketh not God his strength Conquer then thy Will and in that one conquest thou overcomest all other difficulties get but that mastery of that and then the wayes of God shall be like the motion of Nature smooth and without rubor let accompanied with earnestnesse in the onset delight in the midst and successe in the end Let God command what he will thy obedience shall answer 1 Sam. 3.9.10 speake Lord for thy servant heareth as my Lord hath said so will thy servant doe 1 King 2.38 and then shall it appeare as sarre from truth as thy thought to answer as Lot not so my Lord for I cannot But t is now more then time to weigh his reason and see what strength in that can excuse his weaknesse in his I cannot Least some evill take me and I dye And is this all Lot can pretend a surmise a nothing to disprove Gods Conncell and prove his owne I cannot Alas what canst thou weake man if thou canst not this What will not pose the best of thy strength if a meere surmise à fortè if an aliquid if a lest and some evill can doe it O the weaknesse of distrusting man What are we while we hold not fast on the Rocke Christ Iesus the best of us a Peter a Gedeon a Lot Behold a champion one of the Lords worthies yet see his strength his weaknesse I should say see what can trouble him Here 's no realitie of evill nor needs there any to perplexe him a feare a thought a very shaddow will serve to melt his substance into the cold swet of feare a presumption of his owne Ne fortè malum least perhaps evill and ne fortè aliquod least some evill I know not what evill 't is indeterminate and ne fortè si aliquod malum sit capiat least some evill take me and ne fortè si aliquod malum sit capiat nè moriar least if it take him it be mortall least some evill take we and I dye It 's casuall whether there be an evill t is casuall if there be what it is it is casuall if it be and be great whether it take him lastly it is casuall if it be one and that one a great one and it take him whether he dye and yet righteous Lot cannot dare not will not goe the mountaine ne fortè aliquod malum capiat moriar least some evill take me and I dye What needs the bloudy sword of the slaying Angel as against the Assyrians 2 Kin. 19.35 the fighting of the Starres in their courses as against Sisera Iud. 5.20 the warring of the Elements Gen. 19 24. as falling of fire from heaven Ezek. 5.12 as on Sodom infection of the ayre as against Ierusalem Ezek. 6.11 13. overflowing of Water as on the old world Gen. 7.20 21. gaping of the Earth as on Corab Numb 16 31 32. Dathan and Abiram What need the swarmes of flyes bands of locusts frogs lice orot her his creatures which stand ready to be the agents and ministers of his vengeance against sinfull man when God can make man himself his owne punisher his owne feares his owne imaginary feares his own torment and executioner drive him with himself from himself even to such an extasie of feare as shall make him to cure them to compound with the King of feares death Isa 28.15 and make a covenant with hell that he may shunne the present horrour of hell But now to shew as well the weaknesse of Lots argument as of his I cannot suppose for thy fortè a reall evill for this aliquod one certaine and of certaine danger yet might he have stood assured in the capiat and moniaâ— that it should neither take him nor he dye For what doth thy fortè deifie a blinde chance and put out the eye of Gods providence or hath that providence which thou must needs confesse in Sodom left thee at the gates of it and will accompany thee no further or was thy safety from the throngs of the Citie that thou art afraide to be with God alone in the mountaine or dost thou thinke him as they did after 1 Kin. 20.28 a God of vallies and not of the mountaine or if thou thinke none of these why dost thou thinke there can be any danger in obeying